The present invention is a device and method to aid in learning and maintenance of a prescribed or planned diet and more specifically to a portable means and planning aid by which a clear record and indication is provided to a user and others of what has been consumed by the user at any particular time of day in compliance with the diet and simultaneously with the diet being followed the diet plan for the next day is virtually self prepared.
The invention has particular value as an aid to persons required to follow a physician's prescribed diet such as diabetic patients but also has meaning and value in use by persons following balanced diets and exercise regimens recommended for weight control such as the WEIGHT WATCHERS weight loss diet.
A major problem facing a person who is to follow a newly prescribed diet is the usual necessity to break existing eating habits and to discipline himself or herself daily to both learn and follow the new diet. In this process the dieter must learn not to duplicate nor forget what items of the diet have been and are to be eaten during any given meal until the eating patterns of the new diet become second nature. In this regard the person following a diet usually records what has been eaten as it is consumed during the day but frequently recording items consumed is overlooked, and the question arises as to what was or is to be consumed.
The invention is described and exemplified herein by a diet plan aid comprising exchange units for persons afflicted with diabetes. Persons with diabetes have a problem with glucose, a form of sugar made by our body from the food we eat. It is used to produce energy. For the body to use glucose properly, however, it needs insulin which regulates the amount of glucose the body makes use of.
Treatment of diabetes aims to keep blood sugar as nearly normal as possible. This requires maintaining a balance between diet, insulin and exercise. For many people with diabetes, proper diet is all that is necessary for treatment. The diabetic diet is a well balanced diet that is planned for each individual's needs. The doctor prescribes the type of diet and the dietician helps the person fit the diet into his or her daily life. In addition to assisting in development of patterns or habits of medication and food consumption the invention is also adaptable to inclusion of prescribed exercises that are to be followed during specific times of the day.
An object of the invention is to make it an easy task for persons to learn a newly prescribed diet by providing a running record of items consumed as well as an indication of items yet to be consumed at each time of the day.
Another object of the invention is to provide a running visual indication for the user as well as those monitoring the user's progress whether the diet is being followed as prescribed.
The invention is a method and means whereby a prescribed diet can be assembled from a series of food cards or tickets, each listing a food group or classification of food of a diet, including medication to be consumed at specified times during the day as at breakfast, lunch, dinner and interspersed snack times. As a means for carrying out the method, a booklet or folder is provided having two or more pages in the form of panels on opposite sides of a fold, each panel being representative of and displaying a day of meals and snacks of the user's diet. The folder herein more specifically described has two panels joined in hinged relation at adjacent edges representing two days of the user's diet. The panel for each day is provided with a series of horizontal card holding pockets aligned in one or more vertical rows wherein each pocket is representative of a meal or snack corresponding to a time of day for consumption of an item of food of the diet. More specifically, the pockets are provided to represent times for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as times for snacks and times for taking medication. Food cards listing the items matched to each of the meals and snacks of the diet are assembled and inserted in the pockets representing the meal time or snack time during which the specific items of food of the diet are to be consumed.
The food cards each lists a specific food group or classification of food such as meat, vegetable, fruit, fat, bread and milk termed exchanges. Each food classification or exchange card also lists a number of specific items of food falling within the classification as well as the size of portion of each such item allowed in the diet. Such specific food listings may be on the obverse side of the face on which the broad food group is identified. The cards thereby provide specific diet food items which meet each day's prescribed diet or food and permit the diet to be assembled and represented by selection of appropriate cards from the total number of cards. Thus the user is provided a listing of options within each classification of food prescribed permitting a range of variety within the prescribed diet.
The diet cards are assembled into subsets according to the breakfast, lunch and dinner parts of the diet as well as the snack time part. Each subset is placed in one of a series of pockets each representing the meal or snack to be consumed according to the diet. As each item of food of the meal or snack of the diet plan for a given day is consumed, a card listing such item is removed from its representative meal time pocket and is placed in a corresponding meal time pocket of the panel representative of the following day. The diet program for the next day is thus progressively prepared as the current day's diet is consumed.
In other words, in using the diet aid of the invention, cards for the full day of a user's diet are first inserted in appropriate mealtime pockets of the current day panel such as the panel on the left in a booklet. As the day progresses and as each prescribed item has been consumed by the user, the card corresponding to the item consumed is transferred from the pocket of the meal being consumed to the pocket of the corresponding meal in the next panel corresponding to the following day. This procedure is followed successively for each meal. At the end of the day, if the diet is followed properly, all cards for the given day will have been removed and transferred to appropriate pockets for the next day. Thus at any time of day or at the end of the day the patient, nurse or doctor can observe from the cards remaining in the pockets which of the items were or were not consumed by the patient during the day. Meanwhile, the consumed items will have already been transferred to the next day's pockets for programming of the next day's meals.
It is therefore apparent that beside offering a program for guiding the user's eating activities, the booklet and associated cards provide an instant report to the patient as well as others looking at the booklet as to whether the diet has been followed and what deviations might have occurred so that corrective action might be taken to balance the diet in the following day's eating program.
Although food and medications have been referred to in describing the program of the invention it will be readily recognized that prescribed exercises to be conducted during specified times during the day can also be represented by cards inserted in appropriate time pockets.
A feature of the invention is that as the diet for any one day is followed the program for the next day is prepared automatically.
Another feature of the invention is the ease with which a diet can be programmed into the device and the ease with which by use of the invention new diet habits can be established.
Still another feature of the invention is that it is particularly helpful in instructing and guiding youngsters in establishing new diet habits where unfamiliarities with the whys and wherefores of following a diet has in the past presented difficulties to learning new habits.